How to Fix Lawn Drainage
The most visible sign that a lawn has poor drainage may be the pooling of water on the ground's surface when it rains. These puddles are not the greatest cause for concern, though. If water pools on the surface of the ground, it likely clogs up beneath the soil as well, which can oversaturate the roots of plants growing in your landscape, leading to root rot and other issues. If you want to keep your lawn and landscape plants healthy, make an effort to fix lawn drainage issues. Does this Spark an idea?
Things You'll Need
- Shovel
- Tiller
- Builder's sand, sawdust or compost
- Rake
- Landscaping fabric
- Gravel
- Sod
Instructions
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Grade the lawn in areas where structures sit and where the garden, or other landscape plants, grow. Create the grade by removing soil across the lawn's surface to make a gradual slope away from the structures and garden plants. If you remove this soil before applying grass seed or sod to the lawn, the slight slope is often undetectable.
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Till the entire lawn area prior to seeding or laying grass, and prior to planting a garden or landscape plants, to a depth of 6 to 12 inches. Apply 2 to 3 inches of builder's sand, sawdust, compost or a combination of these substances to the tilled soil and work the substance down into the soil with a rake or shovel until it mixes all the way down through the tilled section.
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Dig 12- to 18-inch ditches on your property, starting each ditch at an area in your lawn with poor drainage and aiming the ditch down a slope or hill on your property toward a safe outlet, such as a pond or a marsh area. Line these ditches with landscaping fabric and fill them with 6 inches of gravel and then sand to 1 to 2 inches below ground level. Finish filling the ditch to the top with more gravel, or lay sod over each ditch to hide it from view.
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References
- University of Rhode Island; Installing a Sod Lawn; Thomas Kowalsick; 2001
- LJWorld; Poor Drainage in Yard Easy to Fix; Jennifer Smith; February 2008
- Kansas State University; July, the Optimum Time to Start Over with Damaged Fescue, Bluegrass Lawns; Kathleen Ward; July 2011
- University of Illinois: Lawn Repair and Renovation
